Sa Spooner

We were lucky enough to be commissioned to produce the missing Queen Anne staircase on a Grade 1 listed, Queen Anne house in London SW1. The original case had been removed in the 1970's and the stairwell joisted over to gain extra office space with in the building. Access to the different floors were served by what was originally staff servant stairs at back of house. In order to gain planning consent, one of the stipulations was reinstall a new staircase as the original. The cantilever staircase was a design solution that echoed the buildings historic construction methods and fulfilled one of the many crafted items on S A Spooner's bucket list of fun projects.

Contemporary yet artisan, this opulent, creative and very personal kitchen's focal point is the gold extractor, gilded in 22-carat gold leaf. This unique and challenging design was entered into the KBBReview Retail and Design Awards 2019 where it won 1st place in Kitchen Designer of the Year 2019 category. S A Spooner teamed up with a local designer to manufacture and deliver this multi-layer concept bringing upcycling to a new home and client. The Victorian cast iron radiator cover, which was found in a reclamation yard in Brighton 3 years ago, has now been given a new life and converted into a stunning island, with solid oak, oak veneer and maple cabinetry, and incredible hand-carved detailing, all done by our craftsman.

SA Spooner's commission for this project was to replace an historic fire surround which had been stolen from the clients' home. This was one of many architectural items stolen. Through the insurance process we were asked to cost and make a copy of the missing fireplace. As the clients had not liked the original, it was agreed that the replacement could be of a different design. The brief was to provide a piece which would not look out of place but 'would have a voice'. An initial design was drawn up and accepted by both insurers and clients.

We use hand drawing as a low cost and quick way to express our ideas or direction of the project, these can then move into full blown technical drawings to be used within the workshop. These are known in the trade as 'Rods' generally drawn on white 8' x 4' plywood sheets. The items are drawn full size prior production, they are very good to manipulate the proportions and scale, they are then used by the craftsmen to make the item 'up' from the rod. They are however very hard to email or post which is why we use CAD or render projects or all three.

Our clients had seen the Bramber Gothic Gate on our website and asked if we could adapt the design to their own requirements and taste. The Vine Cottage gate was of greater width and the carved panel needed to be personalised the new location sizes. Having received photo's and sizes of the opening prior works, we produced a design and layout and overlayed these on to the garden images which the client had sent us. These renders gave a scale of product in location without us visiting the site as this was 450 miles from our workshop.